With an ever increasing number of different sized and shaped boats, the contemporary trailers have tended to develop an ever increasing arrangement of bow, keel and stern supports for accommodating the great variety of trailers. Proper distribution of the weight of the trailer on the frame such that pressure on the tongue will accommodate a balanced connection to the prime mover has been attempted by having one or more stationary hull and keel support units mounted forwardly on the frame, and either bunks or gangs of horizontally and vertically adjustable rollers mounted rearwardly on the frame. Examples of various such arrangements are shown in U.S. Pat Nos. 2,816,672; 2,948,423; 3,774,790 and 3,917,087.
Nevertheless, the trailer industry has not only not solved the constant problem of ease of adjustment for proper tongue weight distribution, but has exacerbated the problem by proliferation of the types and arrangement of gangs of rollers such that the problem has actually worsened. Further, there have been no improvements of consequence to the structures for supporting the boat hull and keel, other than that mentioned immediately hereinafter.
In my pending application, Ser. No. 07/112,476 filed Oct. 26, 1987, I revealed an improved boat hull and keel supporting assembly for use with a boat trailer. Although a decided improvement over the prior art, one disadvantage has been found that there is a tendency to cause some scouring and/or scratching of the keel by the keel supporting portion of that assembly due to the presence of sand, gravel and the like on the keel of the boat as the boat is being moved to relative to the trailer and during transportation thereon.
It is to the elimination of this problem of potential keel scuffing and scratching that this invention is directed.